Public Health & Policy

Why your nonprofit hospital system is spending millions on marketing

Physician

March 6, 2026

An excerpt from Narrative Medicine in the Age of Uncertainty: When Systems Strain and Stories Steady.

When a nonprofit hospital system posts a $201 million operating loss, lays off roughly 650 workers, and then buys naming rights to an NFL practice facility, it does not just create bad optics. It teaches a lesson.

Not to the marketing department. To the workforce.

In Philadelphia, Jefferson Health reported a $201 million …

American health care policy reform: Why we need a bipartisan commission

Steve Cohen, JD

Policy

March 4, 2026

America is ready for an honest conversation about health care policy before more people suffer and we go broke waiting for it to happen. Fully one-third of Americans report that in the past 12 months they have skipped or postponed getting needed health care because of the cost. Thirty percent say that they or a family member had problems paying for health care in the past year, and 41 …

The service of humanity: Recommitting to physicians’ ethical duties

American College of Physicians

Policy

March 4, 2026

Recently, my husband and I passed through Eureka, IL (pop. 5,200). We stopped at Eureka College, which is President Ronald Reagan’s alma mater and the host of the Ronald Reagan Museum. As visitors to many presidential libraries, we …

Ecovillages and organic farming could reverse global warming [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 3, 2026

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Physician and health care reform advocate David K. Cundiff discusses his article “Ecovillages and organic agriculture: a scenario for global climate restoration.” David challenges the IPCC’s failure to model a fully organic …

Evaluating the U.S. Surgeon General nominee: Why clinical experience matters

Ben Gonzalez, MD

Physician

March 2, 2026

The single scariest moment in my medical career was not as a student, or a resident with the first dying trauma patient in front of me. Nor was it in Iraq on November 2, 2003, when two Chinooks were shot down and my ER was overwhelmed with trauma after trauma. It was the very first day as an attending in the ER. Up until then, in every single case in …

From Singapore to Canada: a blueprint for primary care transformation

Ivy Oandasan, MD

Policy

February 26, 2026

Recently, Dr. Tara Kiran made headlines when her robust national OurCare survey revealed 5.9 million Canadians still lack a primary care provider, the point-of-entry health professional, like a family doctor or nurse practitioner, who provides routine care.

Those who do have a primary care provider often wait weeks for an appointment, then get rushed through in minutes. Emergency departments overflow with patients who have nowhere else to go.

The federal government …

Opt-in vs. opt-out: How defaults shape organ donation rates

Anvit Divekar

Conditions

February 26, 2026

A few weeks ago, I went to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. At the very end of the process, after the routine questions and fine print, a single prompt appeared with a small checkbox next to it: Do you want to register as an organ donor?

I selected “yes,” but then I paused. Not because I was conflicted, but because I realized how easily I could have done nothing. …

Community cooperatives offer a solution to the affordable health care crisis [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 24, 2026

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Physician, author, and health care reform advocate David K. Cundiff discusses his article “Accountable care cooperatives: a 2026 vision for U.S. health care.” David analyzes the severe funding crisis affecting American families …

Profits before patients: the hidden cost of U.S. health care

Dr. Shantanu Rai

Physician

February 24, 2026

If you want to understand what “profits before patients” means in American health care, don’t start with a spreadsheet. Start with a story.

During residency, I cared for a middle-aged mother of two who came to our community hospital emergency room struggling to breathe. It didn’t take long to realize she needed something we couldn’t offer: urgent heart surgery at a larger hospital.

After a 30-hour shift, I filed the transfer request …

Military leadership lessons for the U.S. health care crisis

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD

Conditions

February 23, 2026

It is said that we live in difficult times, and that reality is unavoidable for anyone who does not live as a hermit in a cave somewhere. For patients and their doctors, the signs of impending failure are equally unavoidable.

Health care consumes 18 percent of U.S. gross domestic product and continues to rise faster than the rate of inflation. Consumer confidence in the goodwill and scientific integrity of U.S. health …

Value-based care workforce: Bridging the gap in clinical education

Kenneth Botelho, DMSc, PA-C

Policy

February 23, 2026

Health care is rapidly transitioning toward value-based care, yet many clinicians remain uncertain about what it actually means for their daily work. Despite widespread discussion of quality metrics, cost containment, and population health, clinicians are increasingly expected to deliver system-level outcomes without structured preparation to function within the systems that demand them.

If health care seeks to improve the lives of clinicians and patients while strengthening continuity of care, it must …

The death of private practice: unequal pay and hospital power

John C. Hagan III, MD

Policy

February 23, 2026

American health care has changed so profoundly in the last three to four decades that it is all but unrecognizable to those of us spending our careers in private practice. In my opinion, the root causes are not that complex. Foremost among them is the unconscionable disparity between the remuneration received by hospital-employed physicians and that of their counterparts in private practice for the same service or procedure.

This is abetted …

Curing U.S. health care: Why a fair health tax is the answer

Shah-Naz H. Khan, MD

Policy

February 23, 2026

The veil of pretense was snatched long ago. So, politicians dare not brazenly declare that the U.S. has the greatest health care in the world. The system is broken. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have a remedy. It is a perverted Robin Hood system, where the rich are robbed to serve the poor poorly.

The exorbitant insurance premiums are unaffordable for many, and for others, it is as if it were a …

Bureaucracy now consumes most of your health care spending [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 20, 2026

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Vascular surgeon Paula Muto discusses her article “Give the health care dollar back to patients.” Paula argues that the government shutdown over health care funding misses the real issue of administrative bloat …

Rural health care crisis: Can telemedicine close the gap?

Griffin Popp

Policy

February 20, 2026

Between 2005 and the present, 195 rural hospitals have closed, with a 50-hospital net reduction occurring just between 2017 and 2023. These closures, compounded by significantly worse measures of social determinants of health (SDOH), high prevalence of Medicaid or Medicare patients, and longer commute times, have created a crisis of access for rural Americans.

The disproportionate impact on rural residents

Compared to their urban and suburban counterparts, …

Single-payer health care vs. market-based solutions: an economic reality check

Allan Dobzyniak, MD

Policy

February 19, 2026

Single-payer health care is generally defended with “heart-wrenching” virtue signaling divorced from any cost, economic, or financial reality. The idea that any scarce service or commodity is a right and therefore should be free is fanciful, but impossible. With an indebtedness of $38 trillion and growing, adding greater than $40 trillion as estimated for the cost of “Medicare for All” would absolutely drive the country into insolvency. Even without single-payer, …

Deprescribing in health care: Why less medication can be more

American Medical Association & John Whyte, MD, MPH

Meds

February 17, 2026

Every day, millions of Americans take medications to manage chronic conditions or prevent disease. Prescription drugs are vital tools in modern medicine, but in some circumstances, they can also lead to serious adverse drug interactions, diminished quality of life, and even life-threatening complications.

This is a complex issue with high stakes for patients. Older adults, in particular, are often prescribed multiple drugs by different doctors for different reasons. The Centers for …

Value-based care data gap: Why metrics fail to reach the bedside

Ido Zamberg, MD

Policy

February 17, 2026

Value-based care represents one of health care’s most important transformations, driving hospitals and health systems to focus on outcomes that truly matter. To succeed in this model, organizations must track and improve their performance metrics continuously, making data health care’s most valuable currency. It is the foundation for improving patient care, reducing complications, and optimizing resource allocation. Yet despite the growing volume of performance metrics being collected, a critical gap …

Community ownership transforms the broken health care system [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 15, 2026

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Physician, author, and health care reform advocate David K. Cundiff discusses his article “Accountable care cooperatives: a community-owned health care fix.” David outlines a transformative plan to replace the fragmented U.S. insurance …

Flexible health care funding: Moving beyond disease eradication

Selena Kattick

Policy

February 14, 2026

The moment the text message lit up my watch, I knew my life had irrevocably changed. I looked down at the miniature screen and found that I could not look away from the gray bubble and the three words that shattered my world: My aunt had passed away. An all-consuming grief overtook me as I processed a reality where my aunt’s boisterous laugh no longer echoed off the walls, along …

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